Decided to get a HDTV and just received a 46" Sony LCD. My old CRT TV was a 40" Sony Vega and had a superb picture, but was far too heavy to move around to get to the inputs on the back, and was not HD.
I am extremely disappointed in the picture quality of this new set. I fooled around with all the settings, none of which helped, and finally reverted to the default. I am using basic cable without a box.
The picture is not sharp at all, is quite dark on some channels, and is a pale copy of my CRT set. I knew it would not be as good, but this is really frustrating. Sony had no suggestions that helped when I called.
I did find some tutorials online about settings, but they did not help either. I never had to do it before, but am thinking of hiring somebody to see if it can be improved, but that may be a waste of money.
I searched for CDs that are supposed to help in adjusting, but the ones I found are around $24, and no sense doing that if it won’t improve the image quality.
Has anybody used these? Is it possible this set is defective, or are all LCDs this poor? The ones I saw in stores looked fine. I also have a 32" Toshiba LCD for a bedroom that is far superior; does the large screen cause a lack of sharpness?
Have you hooked up a DVD to the thing to check the quality?
Your signal from the cable company (isn’t digital since you don’t have a box) may be crappy.
Try connectiong a DVD player and come back with the good news.
How strange. I’ve got a Sony HD LCD too but in a 60" and the picture is supurb… no problems with sharpness or brightness whatsoever. There’s a choice between Standard, Professional and Vibrant for brightness, but I’m guessing Sony Support already covered that with you.
Is your set a floor model or new and what recourse do you have with the supplier/seller?
You might not like the suggestions and I have a few questions.
Is the new set 1080i or better yet 1080p? If not return it, it is crap.
Do you have a Hi-def feed to the new set?
Does your DVD playback look superior to TV viewing?
I have a Westinghouse 37" LCD that is 1080p. The picture is superior to Plasma and DLP. When I was shopping I was deeply disappointed in the Sony LCDs and I would have recommended against buying one. Again, I say return it.
Look into Sharp, Westinghouse or another top rated brand and ensure the set you buy is at least 1080i.
Your biggest problem is that you’re feeding a HD set a LD signal. It has to rescale the image to fit your resolution, and oft-times this is done very poorly, leading to very ugly pictures. I’ve seen more than one person react to a new HDTV exactly as you are.
It may just be that you are watching a standard def signal on a high def tv. Have you hooked it up to an HD signal or even a DVD? An HD TV will relentlessly display every flaw in an SD signal. This is where I would start. If you order an HD cable box/sat box you might see some improvement on the SD channels as well, as the box may do a better job upconverting, and the connection between the box and the TV will be component or digital and undergo a lot less loss. LCD’s don’t suffer from the convergence problems that can effect projection TV’s so if you have the basics (brightness, contrast etc.) that is about all you can do. Hope this helps!
I will third or fourth that it is probably that you are not watching a High Def signal. My brother in law had the exact same problem when he bought his brand spanking new rear projection HD TV. He was ready to return it when the satellite people told him that he had to get the HD channels (for $12 more per month!) to get the nice picture.
You mentioned that you’re using basic cable out of a box, so that’s your problem. Even so, a decent set should upscale just fine. My new Magnavox LCD 1080i is used exclusively with analogue cable and analogue DirecTV (analogue out of the receiver, of course), plus my DVD collection ripped to MP4. These are all decidedly non-HD signals, but yet I’m perfectly pleased with their quality, especially the cable. Of course if I look at the QAM channels, they’re even better (being real HD) but I have no interest in live TV anyway.
OK, many thanks to all for the education. Cheech, it used to be a simple matter to get a new television set, but now…
Anyhow, I now understand the problem is trying to shoehorn an analog signal into a digital set. It does have 1080i, and DVDs do look great, so obviously it is the signal.
I talked to a Sony techie who basically said what you guys have written, and then talked to my cable company. I can upgrade to a digital plan for only $20 a month more, so obviously that should make the difference. Of course will need a set top box, one more device to cram into my entertainment center, but hope it will be worth it. If not, can cancel the upgrade.
If you are upgrading to a digital Hi-Def cable box, ask how much more the DVR feature would cost. It is an awesome feature. It might be worth it to you.
Even a “digital plan” from your cable company will not usually include any HDTV channels, although it will definitely be an improvement over the analog signal you currently have.
But IMHO, you should spring a few extra bucks and get the HDTV package. You’ll be amazed at the difference in the signal quality.
I bought my 50" HD LCD projection set about 3 years ago for $3000. Now I see 50" HD LCD projection sets selling for around $1200.
I knew prices were falling on these things but not that fast.
Upon closer inspection it seems like these newer sets that are flying out the doors of Costco and Sam’s Club are all the 720p variety. I’ve got a 1080i set it turns out.
It seems misleading to me that everyone’s being sold on these 720 sets as the latest-greatest Hi-Def technology when they are clearly inferior.
1080 sets still run around the $3000 price tag for a 50".
Absolutely. But still, be prepared for non-HD channels to look worse than they did on your old set. I usually watch the HD channel even if the show isn’t in HD. Some people get annoyed by the sidebars (fits 4:3 signal onto a 16:9 screen), but the increased picture quality is worth it.
BTW HD is also broadcast over the air, so if you have a receiver and not just an HDTV monitor, you should be able to tune in to a broadcast to check the picture that way.
I agree. 1080p will let you sit closer and still see great resolution, but you’d have to be right on top of a 50" screen to notice. OTOH, if you have a really big screen, say 80" or so, you might notice at normal, but close, viewing distances. And there are no plans to broadcast in 1080p. I think some video games might come in that format, and people do often sit very close to their screens when playing video games-- although with the wireless controllers these days, that’s probably not as true as it used to be.
Sure, are you buying the TV for today or for the next 7-10 years? They are still a hefty investment and 1080p will be the standard for Blue-Ray, Computer output and eventually cable.
I can already see the difference between 720p and 1080p with both computer and DVD output. It gets more pronounce the larger the screen size. On 60”, DLP 720p vs. 1080p is fairly easy to see the difference.
I just wanted to add that if you want to test it out first, you can pick up an antenna at Target for under $15. Strangely, I can display HD broadcasts on my non HDTV. It just comes out smaller and wide-screen.
I had a fun incident this Thanksgiving with a similar situation with family. They didn’t realize that they had to actually tune to the HD channels (buried way up in the hundreds on their cable) to get “High Definition,” and they almost fell out of their chairs when I turned from a grainy, analog signal to a live concert in HD.
Of course, then I hooked up their DVD player with component cables instead of the crappy composite ones that it was hooked up with… :eek:
